From: tony@morgan.demon.co.uk (Tony Kidson)
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 92 08:56:24 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Mac PGP report and Rander progress
Message-ID: <842@morgan.demon.co.uk>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


In message <9211270003.AA20577@napa.TELEBIT.COM> you write:
> Has anyone given any thought to generating random numbers by counting
> particle emissions from a radioactive source?  This might be more
> reliably random than using purely electronic means.
>
I don't think that for any given length of random bit string, 
you'd be practically happy carrying around a suitable source. 
Thermal noise, which is what you get from a diode, is just as 
good a random source as radioactive decay.

Tony
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